If you are looking for feature-packed, affordable, and reliable web hosting for your website, you are in the right place.
There is a wide range of web hosting providers available online, but very few hosting providers offer the best hosting experience with amazing features at affordable prices.
We understand that finding a good but affordable web host is a crucial task for everyone, but especially for newbies. That is why we came up with a great solution for you, it’s HostGator.
Here in this HostGator review article, you are going to explore HostGator which is one of the most popular and trusted web hosting options for you.
This is the web host that I have been using on my few affiliate sites for the last 7 years. And I’m literally a huge fan of HostGator, not only for its affordability but also for its incredible performance and features.
HostGator is one of the experienced web-hosting providers, offering a wide range of hosting solutions like sharing, WordPress, cloud, VPS, dedicated hosting, and so on. So, whatever your hosting needs, HostGator has a solution for you.
Now without much ado, let’s get started.
So now, let’s dive into the main topic and find out all about HostGator web hosting services in detail.
HostGator Review: Is It the Hosting You Need In 2023?
What is HostGator? (Brief Introduction)
As we said before, HostGator is one of the experienced and most trusted hosting providers in the industry. It was founded in 2002 (around 2 decades ago) by Brent Oxley in a dormitory in Florida.
In 2012, HostGator was acquired by Endurance International Group.
Currently, with over 2 million websites hosted, HostGator consistently delivers unmatched speed and performance to its customers. For better performance, it is awarded by some big brands like WPBeginner, Hosting Advice, PCMag, and many more.
Whether you have a small business website or an eCommerce website, HostGator has better hosting options for everyone. One of the best parts is here that all hosting options are affordable and fully featured.
HostGator Features List
First of all, let’s take a brief look at the features you will get with their shared hosting plans. Here is the list of some amazing features:
- FREE 1-year domain registration
- FREE domain transfers
- Unmetered bandwidth & disk space
- FREE SSL certification
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
- FREE email with advanced email tools
- FREE MySQL transfer & script transfer
- Access to the latest cPanel
- Unlimited subdomains & FTP accounts
- 24/7/365 live chat, email & phone support
- One-click WordPress installer
- Free $150 Google Ads and $100 Bing Ads credit
- 45-day anytime money-back guarantee
Whichever plan you choose for your project, you will benefit from all of the above features. If you find these features useful, click the link below to get started.
10 Strong Reasons to Consider Hostgator Hosting for Your WordPress Website
In this in-depth review, we will show you why HostGator is the best option if you are looking for an affordable and reliable web host for your blog or business website.
Here are the top 10 benefits of choosing HostGator hosting to run your websites in 2023 and beyond.
1. Affordable Hosting Plans
One of the best things about HostGator is that they offer best-in-class hosting services at an affordable cost. Their shared hosting plan starts at just $2.75 per month with all the essential features.
If you are a beginner and want to start a new blog, HostGator hosting is one of the best options available to you. On the other hand, if you are looking for affordable hosting for your existing project with plenty of features, you may also consider HostGator hosting because of its affordable pricing plans with great features and performance.
2. Uptime Guaranteed
Uptime is the main concern when we have to decide to choose any hosting provider. So let’s check out the HostGator uptime.
Although HostGator claims a 99.9% uptime guarantee, but for better clarification, we will find the actual uptime by visiting the HRank website.
HRank is the web hosting research platform, where they regularly crawl millions of websites to analyze the uptime and response times of any web hosting provider around the world.
You can also check the live data from here (credits: HRank) to see HostGator having a 99.975% uptime.
3. Loading Speed & Performance
Website loading speed is a crucial factor for the success of any online business. If your website has a decent loading speed, you can expect a positive response from your website visitors. But if your website takes longer to load, you are more likely to lose your visitors because no one likes to stick with a slow website.
According to a survey report, if your website takes longer than 3 seconds to load, there are higher chances that 40% of visitors will abandon your site.
Therefore, for better clarification, we have tested a demo website on GTMetrix to show you the exact performance stats.
To perform this speed test, we have used the Astra Pro theme and the Elementor page builder plugin.
Note – We have not used any cache plugin on this demo website.
As you can see from the screenshot above, the website load time is 1.1 seconds and the performance and structure is over 90% which is really amazing.
4. Free Site Migration
If you already have a website and want to migrate, HostGator is here for you.
HostGator offers a 30-day (after signup) free migration assistance policy with all of their hosting plans. During this period you can contact the HostGator support team at any time, they will transfer your existing website (including domain, data, and email accounts) to the HostGator’s server for free.
HostGator also offers a free migration plugin, which allows you to migrate your website from your existing hosting provider to HostGator.
Quick Note – All of HostGator’s shared hosting plans come with a single site (or cPanel) migration support.
5. Easy to use cPanel
HostGator provides a responsive CPanel, which is really easy to use. You can quickly access any necessary tool directly from your control panel with just one click. You can easily manage your domain, subdomain, SQL database, email accounts, and many more from a single dashboard.
As we have been using HostGator for 7 years, we did not experience any complications with the CPanel. So if you are a beginner, there is no doubt that you will enjoy using this control panel and get to grips with it soon.
6. Free Domain Name Registration
If you are planning to use their web hosting services, you can register your domain name for free (1st year only) with them. Generally, it costs you around $15 per year, but with HostGator, you can save that cost.
To get this free domain registration, you need to sign up for a 12, 24, or 36 months HostGator Shared, WordPress, or Cloud hosting plan.
7. Site Security Features Available
To provide you with a more secure hosting experience, HostGator offers the free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate with all of their hosting plans. Now you can configure your website with a Secure HTTPS Connection for free. It will help you build trust in your audience on your website.
To prevent your website from having unknown malware, exploits, and ransomware, they periodically scan the web server and protect your website against DDoS attacks.
They also offer a few other security features like SiteLock Security, which help protect your site from malware or hackers.
Quick Note – SiteLock is an optional service that will cost you a bit more. For this feature, you will need to pay $1.99/month (billed annually at $23.88).
Recommended Read: GreenGeeks Review: Is It the Best WordPress Hosting In 2023?
8. Website Builder
Hostgator’s all-new and improved Gator website builder is an automated website builder for those who just need a basic website for their business. By using this website builder, you can quickly build a responsive and well-designed website.
Gator builder comes with lots of features and tools which are required to make a perfect website for your online business. Not only that, you will get free stuff like free hosting, free domain, and free SSL certificate.
With this website builder you will also get pre-designed templates, just select the category and choose your favorite one. Now all you have to do is follow a few steps and that’s it, your website is ready to go.
Apart from that, if you need any technical support, Gator’s support team is available for you 24/7/365 by phone, live chat support, and email. For more information on the website builder, check out the link below.
9. 24/7 Customer Support
HostGator offers best-in-class customer support. Whenever we encountered any technical issues, we always got assistance on time.
HostGator provides 24/7/365 technical support via live chat, phone, and email. Whenever you need technical assistance, you can get in touch with them in any way you prefer.
Apart from that, HostGator has an extensive knowledge base library. Whenever you get stuck in any way, you can refer to this library. Here you will find hundreds of articles and videos to help you troubleshoot.
10. 45-Day Money-Back Guarantee
HostGator is so confident in their performance and service, that’s why they offer a 40-day money-back guarantee, which is 15 days extra compared to other hosting companies.
One of the best things is that they are very transparent about their refund policy, so if you have any issues with their hosting performance and did not find any resolution yet, you can request your refund within 40 days.
HostGator Pricing Plans
HostGator offers a wide range of hosting options at affordable prices:
- Shared Hosting
- Cloud Hosting
- WordPress Hosting
- VPS Hosting
- Dedicated Hosting
- Reseller Hosting
Whether you have a blog, a small business website, or an e-commerce website, HostGator offers different hosting options for your different requirements. If you are a newbie you can start with shared hosting, but if you have an eCommerce website or a high traffic volume website you may consider opting for a VPS or dedicated hosting (depending on your needs).
So let’s take a look at the different hosting plans and pricing of HostGator.
1. Shared Hosting
HostGator currently offers 3 pricing plan options for shared hosting, which are listed below.
1. Hatchling Plan
2. Baby Plan
3. Business Plan
1 Hatchling Plan – This is the cheapest shared hosting plan from HostGator which costs you just $2.75/month where you’ll get the following features.
- Single website
- One-click WordPress installs
- Free WordPress/cPanel website transfer
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Free SSL certificate
- Free domain included
2. Baby Plan – This is the most recommended shared hosting plan, which costs you $3.50/month. With this plan, you can install unlimited sites with the following features.
- Unlimited websites
- One-click WordPress installs
- Free WordPress/cPanel website transfer
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Free SSL certificate
- Free domain included
- Unlimited addon/parked domains
3. Business Plan – This is the advanced shared hosting plan from HostGator where you can unlimited websites and it costs you $5.25/month. With this plan, you’ll get the following features.
- Unlimited websites
- One-click WordPress installs
- Free WordPress/cPanel website transfer
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Unlimited addon/parked domains
- Free SSL certificate
- Free Positive SSL upgrade
- Free dedicated IP
- Free SEO tools
- Free domain included
Click here to launch your WordPress website on HostGator hosting
2. Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting is the latest form of web hosting technology, providing a faster and safer hosting experience. HostGator currently offers 3 pricing plan options for Cloud hosting, which are listed below.
1. Hatchling Cloud
2. Baby Cloud
3. Business Cloud
1. Hatchling Cloud – This is the starter cloud hosting plan which costs you $4.95/month where you will get the following features.
- Single Domain
- 2 GB Memory
- 2 Core CPU
- Free SSL Certificate
- Free Domain Included
2. Baby Cloud – This plan costs you $6.57/month where you can install unlimited websites along with the following features.
- Unlimited Domains
- 4 GB Memory
- 4 Core CPU
- Free SSL Certificate
- Free Domain Included
3. Business Cloud – This is the advanced cloud hosting plan from HostGator which costs you $9.95/month. With this plan, you will get access to the following features.
- Unlimited Domains
- 6 GB Memory
- 6 Core CPU
- Free SSL Certificate
- Free Upgrade to Positive SSL
- Free Dedicated IP
- Free SEO Tools
- Free Domain Included
3. WordPress Hosting
This is also another shared hosting plan which is specifically optimized to run on WordPress. HostGator currently offers 3 pricing plan options for WordPress hosting, which are listed below.
1. Starter Plan
2. Standard Plan
3. Business Plan
1. Starter Plan – This is the starter WordPress hosting plan from HostGator where you can install 1 WordPress website which costs you $5.95/ month. With this plan, you will get the following features.
- 1 site
- 100k visits per month
- 1 GB backups
- Free SSL certificate
- Free domain for 1 year
2. Standard Plan – This plan costs you $7.95/month where you can host 2 websites with the following features.
- 2 sites
- 200k visits per month
- 2 GB backups
- Free SSL certificate
- Free domain for 1 year
3. Business Plan – This is the advanced WordPress hosting plan from HostGator which costs you $9.95/month. With this plan, you will get the following features.
- 3 sites
- 500k visits per month
- 3 GB backups
- Free SSL certificate
- Free domain for 1 year
Now let’s take a brief look at other hosting options by HostGator:
4. VPS Hosting
VPS hosting is one of the most popular hosting services that you can choose for your website. With this hosting, your website host on shared virtual resources (multiple users on the same server). HostGator’s VPS hosting gives you the fastest website speeds at around $19.95/month.
5. Dedicated Hosting
VPS hosting is the most advanced hosting service where you get your private server for hosting your website. HostGator dedicated hosting pricing plans start at around $89.98/month.
These are the hosting plans that HostGator offers. You can choose any plan according to your needs. If you are a beginner, we will recommend that you start with shared hosting plans.
Pros and Cons of Using Hostgator Hosting
Here’s the list of pros and cons of using their web hosting.
Pros:
- You will get a FREE domain registration for the first year with all their hosting plans
- Free migration service available to move your website to HostGator
- Unmetered bandwidth & disk space
- One-click FREE Let’s Encrypt SSL Configuration
- Industry’s best 99.9% uptime guarantee
- You can create Unlimited business email accounts
- 24/7/365 live chat, email & phone technical support
- You will get a 45-days money-back guarantee
Cons:
- HostGator does not provide an automatic site backup with any of their hosting plans. if you need this service, you will have to pay extra.
- HostGator does not provide the malware scanning feature with their hosting plans. Again, if you need this feature, you will have to pay more for SiteLock security.
Must Read: 10 Best Web Hosting for Beginners in 2023 (In-Depth Review)
HostGator Review – FAQs
Final Thoughts
If you are looking for affordable hosting with better performance and excellent customer support, HostGator is one of the best options for you. We have been using HostGator for 7 years and we are satisfied with their services and performance.
If you are a beginner, you can go for shared hosting, which is the most affordable and feature-rich hosting from HostGator.
So what are you waiting for? Start your website on HostGator today and if you have any doubts or questions regarding HostGator hosting, let us know in the comments.